The waiting is over! The HM5 from MB&F is here!
Here's the scoop - straight from MB&F -
HM5
On the Road Again may appear relatively simple, but it’s complicated: the hour
and minute displays look straightforward, but they are bi-directional jumping
hours with indications inversed, reflected 90° to the vertical and magnified
20%; HM5 has a futuristic case design, but it's from the 1970s; the case of HM5
is not water resistant, but its movement is; HM5 has a modern automatic winding
mechanical movement, but it was inspired by an era when quartz was King; the
rear louvres on supercars block light, but on HM5 they let it in; HM5 has
exhaust pipes, but they drain water; HM5 is On the Road Again, but its
inspiration barely left the garage.
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| Courtesy of MB&F |
The
last decade or two have seen an exponential growth in inventions that have
revolutionised our lives. Robots may not cook dinner, but they can build cars,
vacuum the home and mow the lawn. Sending a man to Mars is not a question of if,
but when.
But
imagine the exciting anticipation of the future in the early 1970s with the
arrival of supercars, hovercrafts, supersonic Concords, Apollo moon landings;
and high-precision quartz watches. Everything seemed possible: humanoid robots,
jet-packs and flying cars. In the 1970s the future wasn’t tomorrow, it was
today!
“Imagine telling somebody in 1972
that in 2012, most people would be wearing round watches with round dials and
three hands. That would sound crazier and more far-fetched than the idea of
living on Mars!” Maximilian
Büsser
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| Courtesy of MB&F |
In
1972, one plucky watch brand, Amida, decided to take on the quartz usurpers at
their own game with the Digitrend, which featured a fashionably futuristic tapered
case and vertical digital LED-look display powered by a mechanical movement. It
looked just like a cutting-edge quartz watch and it eventually became an iconic
timepiece. Unfortunately, appreciation came too late to save Amida.
The unmistakable
wedge-shaped case of On the Road Again is direct homage to the daring Amida
Digitrend. However, it also takes unmistakable cues from the sleek low-slung super cars
of the epoch, with louvres on their near horizontal rear windows blocking
sunlight and heat. Conversely, the slide operated louvres on HM5 open to allow
light in to charge on the Super-LumiNova numbers on the time disks.
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| Courtesy of MB&F |
Another
distinguishing feature of supercars are throaty exhaust pipes. HM5 has dual exhausts
to drain water, in case – like James Bond’s Lotus in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ –
HM5 gets wet. An inner water-resistant case keeps HM5’s Engine nice and dry.
An optical grade
sapphire prism reflects the horizontal hour and minutes so that they
display vertically and a convex lens magnifies the numeral by 20% for improved
legibility. The vertical forward-facing display makes HM5 an excellent driver’s watch as there is no
need to lift your wrist from the steering wheel to read the display.
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| Courtesy of MB&F |
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